Filament wire feed means for winding mechanisms



- L. WITTEK June 16, 1959 FILAMENT WIRE FEED MEAN-SFOR WINDI NG MECHANISMS INVENTOR Z eslz'e Filed June 25, 1956 United States Patent FILAMENT WIRE FEED MEANS FOR WINDING MECHANISMS Leslie Wittek, Belleville, N .J assignor to Tung-Sol Electric Inc., a corporation of Delaware Application June 25, 1956, Serial No. 593,708

1 Claim. (Cl. 15367) The present invention relates to lamp making machinery and more particularly to filament winding mechanism such as that comprising one station of an automatic mount machine and comprises improved means for feed of the filament wire to the winding mechanism.

In the usual winding station of an automatic mount machine, one end of the filament wire, which becomes one filament leg, is clamped by jaws during rotation of a chuck through which the wire is drawn under slight tension from a supply reel, the wire being wound about a reciprocable mandrel. Upon completion of the Winding operation, rotation of the chuck is stopped and the jaws and mandrel are moved a short distance to draw additional wire from the reel, which after severance from the supply, forms the other leg of the filament. When very fine wire is employed, the weight of the reel and the tension on the reel which is necessary to keep the Wire from tangling, causes stretching of the coils of the filament and partial unwinding when the jaws are moved to provide the other filament leg. This difiiculty is overcome by the present invention which provides means for moving the supply reel with respect to the chuck during translation of the jaws to permit the jaws to move away from the chuck the desired distance without application of undue tension to the wire.

In accordance with the invention the reel is mounted on a sleeve which is keyed to the shaft of the chuck for limited longitudinal movement thereon and which is coupled by a clutch to a cam controlled arm for movement toward the chuck at the proper stage of operation of the winding mechanism, a spring being provided for returning the sleeve and reel to normal winding position after severance of the wire to form the other leg of the filament.

For a better understanding of the invention and of the advantages thereof reference may be had to the accompanying drawings of which Fig. 1 is a side view of a filament winding mechanism;

Fig. 2 is a partial view similar to Fig. 1 but showing the parts in the position after severance of the Wire;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary view similar to Fig. 2 but showing the position of parts at the initiation of the Winding operation;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 1; and

Figs. 5 and 6 are enlarged transverse sectional views taken on the lines 5-5 and 6--6, respectively, of Fig. 1.

In the drawing, the supply reel or spool for the filamentary wire is shown at 2, the rotatable chuck at 4, the mandrel at 6, the chuck shaft at 8 and the drive gear therefor at 9. A conventional knife is diagrammatically indicated at 10 and a pickup finger for the completed filament at 12. In accordance with the invention the axle of the reel 2 is rotatably mounted in bearings in a sleeve 14 which is keyed by means of a slot 16 and threaded pin 18 to a stub shaft 20 which in turn is threadedly coupled to the chuck shaft 8. Two annular ribs or shoulders 22 2,890,736. Patented June 16, 1959 are formed on the sleeve 14 to provide therebetween an annular groove 24 for reception of rollers 26 carried on a yoke 28. The base of the yoke 28 is fixed to a shaft 30 rotatably mounted in a support arm 32 fixed at its forward end to the casing 34 of the chuck mechanism. An operating rod 36 is pivotally coupled at its upper end to a rock arm 38 fixed at its end to the shaft-30. Thus reciprocation of the rod 36 by a cam 37, mounted on the conventional cam shaft of the mechanism causes rocking of the yoke 28 and longitudinal movement of the sleeve 14 relative to the chuck shaft 8. A compression spring 40 interposed between one rib 22 and a shoulder 42 formed on the stub shaft 20 biases the sleeve 14 to the outer position shown in Fig. 1 wherein the pin 18 is at one extremity of the slot 16. When the rod 36 is raised to the position shown in Fig. 2 the sleeve 14 is moved to the left into the position shown in Fig. 2 against the force of the spring 40. A leaf spring 44 mounted on one rib 22 engages the wire 46 on the reel 2 under suflicient tension to prevent tangling of the wire during unwinding.

The stub shaft 20 and shaft 8 are hollow and the wire 44 from the reel 2 extends longitudinally through the shafts and through a hole (see Fig. 6) slightly off center in the face of the chuck. The face of the chuck has a larger centrally disposed hole 48 immediately adjacent the wire hole for reception of the end of the mandrel 6 during the winding operation. This construction together with that now about to be described in connection with the operation of the winding mechanism, is of conventional design, but is explained in order that the advantages resulting from the heretofore described mounting of the reel 2 will be better understood.

The mandrel 6 is disposed in a longitudinal passage in the lower jaw 50 of the wire gripping jaws and reciprocates therein under control of cam operated means (not shown). The upper jaw 52 of the wire clamping jaws is pivotally mounted on the jaw 50 and conventional means (not shown) are provided for moving jaw 52 into and out of the wire gripping position shown in Fig. 5. Jaw 50, carrying jaw 52 is slidably mounted in a fixture 54 and separate cam controlled means (not shown) are provided for controlling the reciprocation of the jaws and of the mandrel. At the start of the winding operation, just after the pickup finger 12 has picked up a completed filament and is moving away as indicated by the arrow associated therewith in Fig. 3, the jaw 50 moves into engagement with the face of the chuck and jaw 52 is operated to grasp the end of the filament wire protruding from the chuck. The mandrel 6 is also moved to cause its end to enter the hole 48. laws 50 and 52 are then slowly retracted, drawing the wire 46 therewith, the brake 56 moves laterally away from the chuck and the chuck is rotated to cause the wire 46 to wind about the mandrel.

Fig. 1 shows the parts in the position corresponding to completion of the winding operation. At this stage, the rotation of the chuck is stopped, brake 56 engages the chuck, the mandrel and the jaws are moved to the left and simultaneously arm 36 is operated to move sleeve 14 into the position shown in Fig. 2, movement of the sleeve and reel carried thereby being thus timed with the movement of the jaws and mandrel to relieve tension on the wire. Also the distance through which the reel is moved is preferably equal to that through which the jaws retract to provide the second leg of the filament.

The succeeding operations, including severance of the wire by knife 10 and pickup of the completed filament by finger 12 following retraction of the mandrel are conventional.

The improved means of the invention for filament wire delivery to a filament winding mechanism have now been 3 described. The winding mechanism has been described as that at one station of an automatic mount machine but obviously the invention-is equally applicable to any filament'windin'g rsmechanism, whether or not forming part :of an automatic mount machine. The invention :is

of particular value when very fine filament wire is employed as' turns of :such 'Wil'fiare more rapt to -become 'unwound when longitudinal tension is applied to one end of the coil. 'Itwill be appreciated that the diameter of the wire is shown greatly magnified in .the drawing for purposes of clarity.

The following is claimed:

A filament winding mechanism comprising a rotatable chuck having a hollow drive shaft a sleeve mounted to rotate with and slide axially on said drive shaft, a filament wire supply reel mounted on said sleeve, said mechanism including jaws axially aligned with said shaft and chuck and means for moving the same toward and away from said chuck for drawing wire from the reel through the shaft and chuck, said mechanism including also a mandrel aligned with the extended axis of the chuck and carried by one of said jaws for reception of turns of the filament wire during rotation of the chuck, and cam operated means operatively connected to said sleeve and timed for operation after the filament wire has been wound on the mandrel and during movement of the jaws away from the chuck to form a terminal filament leg, for moving said sleevetoward the chuck to relieve tensionon the filament wire and thereby prevent spreading of the turns of the wound filament.

References Eited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,021,386 Uhlig Mar. 26, 1912 1,939,137 Schaerer Dec. 12, 1933 2,439,893 Iden Apr. 20, 1948 2,564,016 Maddie Aug. 14, 1951 

